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Setting Standards to Advance Injury and Violence

Prevention in Local Health Departments

Local health departments (LHDs) play an important role in coordinating the broader public health system’s efforts to address the causes of injury and violence. LHDs are well suited to unite community partners to address the causes of injury- and violence-related inequities through policy, environment, and system change.

In 2010, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and the Safe States Alliance convened 35 local, state, and national representatives to develop standards and indicators for model local health department (LHD) injury and violence prevention (IVP) programs. Setting standards for IVP in LHDs (1) increases the visibility of IVP as a public health issue, (2) increases the number of LHDs that focus on IVP, (3) increases the effectiveness of LHD IVP efforts, and (4) spurs the development of tools and resources for LHDs to effectively address the causes of injuries and violence.